Please note that apart from the Creative Writing Ink Free to Enter Competition and the Writing Prompt competition, all other listings are for external competitions. If you have a question about these competitions, please contact the competition organisers by clicking the website link in each listing. Unfortunately, we cannot assist with queries on external competitions. […]
The Never Such Innocence 2020/21 Competition is open until March 19, 2021. This year’s competition theme is ‘The Unheard Voices of Conflict: Stories from Around the World’. There are four categories: Poetry, Art, Speech and Song and the competition is open to young people aged 9-18. The winners in the four categories will be invited […]
The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2020/21 is open until January 31, 2021. It comes from The Chaucer Heritage Trust. It’s their fourth annual writing competition for schools inspired by the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. The theme of the competition is: Be Careful What You Wish For! The competition is open to all students of school […]
The Young Walter Scott Prize 2020 is open until October 31, 2020. Open to young writers, aged 11-19. Stories must be set in the past – any time before you were born! Free to enter. Submit historical fiction, it can be in any form: prose, poetry, drama, fictional diaries, letters or reportage. There are two […]
The Globe Soup Autumn 2020 Poetry Competition is open until November 11, 2020. Submit poems of up to 50 lines. Theme: ‘Poetry with a Sense of Place’ They accept all forms and styles of poetry. Prize: £1,000 Entry Fee: £5 for Early Entry, £8 for General Entry The winner will be announced on November 30, […]
The Wales Poetry Award is open until November 27, 2020. They are looking for the best in international contemporary poetry. No theme. Submit entries up to 70 lines. Judge: Pascale Petit First prize is £250 and a place on the writing course of your choice at Literature Wales’ Ty Newydd Writing Centre, a Seren Book […]
The Latin Programme Poetry Competition 2020 is open until December 1, 2020. Send your poem using the Latin phrase ‘de rerum natura’ (‘on the nature of things’) as a starting point. How you use the phrase is completely up to you. For example, it could simply be as a theme to meditate upon as you […]
The Cranked Anvil Flash Fiction Competition is now open. There are quarterly deadlines: 28th (or 29th) Feb; 31st May; 31st August; 30th November Entry Fee: £3 for 1 entry, or £5 for 2 entries Prizes: £100, £25. The two winning entries will be published on the website. The maximum word count is 500, not including […]
The 2021 St. Martin’s Minotaur/ Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition is open until January 1, 2021. Free to enter. Open to any writer, aged 18 and over who has never been the author of a published novel. All manuscripts must book length (no less than 220 typewritten pages or approximately 60,000 words) […]
The Wenlock Olympian Society Flash Fiction Competition, in collaboration with the Much Wenlock & District U3A ‘Writers on the Edge’, is open until October 31, 2020. Prizes: £150, £50 and £25 plus Gold, Silver or Bronze Wenlock Olympian Society (WOS) medals Submit up to 1,000 words. Themes: – Five Rings – Winning – Gold is […]
The Language Evolves – Short Story Competition 2020 is open until December 1, 2020. Free to enter. Submit short stories (max 2500 words) on the theme of language evolution. The shortlist will be judged by Dr. Mary Doria Russell. The first-prize winner will receive £400 and the story will be published in the New Welsh […]
The Ginkgo Prize Ecopoetry 2020 is open until October 31, 2020. They’re looking for poems written in the English language that engage with the climate crisis, words that will ignite our global conscience. Poems can be any length and follow any form. Open worldwide. Judges: Simon Armitage and Jade Cuttle. Prizes: £5,000, £2,000, £1,000. Entry […]
The Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition is a quarterly short story competition. The closing dates are: 31st January, 30th April, 31st July, 31st October. Open to any theme or genre, but your story must be a maximum of 1,500 words (not including the title). Entry fees: £5 for the first, £3 for the second, £2 […]
The Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize is open until October 31, 2020. Free to enter. Submit fiction or non-fiction, 1,000-1,500 words. One entry only. Open to young writers aged between 18 and 25 living in the UK. Each year a question or quote exploring Franklin’s relevance in our time is open for interpretation. This year’s […]
The East Riding Festival of Words Poetry Competition is open until November 28, 2020. Theme: “My companion, my best friend”. Poems must be a maximum of 45 lines long. Entries will be judged by a panel of published Yorkshire poets, including James Nash. There are 14 prizes available, with £500 for the Collection HQ Prize. […]
The Caledonia Novel Award is open until November 1, 2020. Open to unpublished and self-published novelists. Novels can be in any genre for adults or young adults. Novels must be the entrant’s original work and at least 50,000 words in length. Submit the first 20 pages of your novel and a 200 word synopsis. If […]
The 2020 Shooter Poetry Competition is open until November 1, 2020. Submit up to 100 lines, any style/subject. Entry Fee: £3 per poem or £8 for three. All entrants will receive an e-copy of Shooter’s Winter 2021 issue, in which the winning poem will appear. The winner will receive £150 and publication both in print […]
The Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry Competition is open until October 31, 2020. Judge: Roger Elkin Submit original, previously unpublished poems in English, on any subject, in any style, up to 50 lines long. Poets of all nationalities living in any part of the world are eligible to enter. Prizes: £250, £100, £50, £30 x 3 […]
The International Competition for an Illustrated Children’s Book Project CLAIRVOYANTS 2020 is open until December 15, 2020. The illustrated children’s book should be in English or Polish. Your submission should include a storyboard or a script of the whole book, together with 3 finished double spreads and a summary in English (obligatory) and in Polish […]
The National Poetry Competition 2020 is open until October 31, 2020. Submit unpublished poems of up to 40 lines. Open to anyone aged 18 or over. Prizes: £5000, £2000, £1000. Commendations: £200 Judges: Neil Astley, Jonathan Edwards, Karen McCarthy Woolf Entry fee: £7 for the first poem. Subsequent entries in the same submission cost £4 […]
The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction is open until October 23, 2020. Free to enter. Open to anyone 18 years or over who is a resident of the UK. The prize comes from Comma Press and the University of Central Lancashire. Submit stories of between 2,000 and 6,000 words on the theme Home, along […]
The Henshaw Short Story Competition is open until September 30, 2020. Submit a short story on any theme up to 2000 words. Prizes: £200, £100, £50 Entry Fee: £6 The winning entries will also be published on the Henshawpress website and in an anthology. More here.
The Ovacome Writing Competition opens on July 31, 2020. Deadline: 31 October 2020 The competition comes from Ovacome, the national ovarian cancer support charity. They are launching their writing competition to raise awareness of ovarian cancer among a new audience and funds for their support services. Submit short stories of up to 2,500 words. Theme: […]
The WOW! Women On Writing Contests are now open. WOW! Women On Writing Q1 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest Deadline: October 31, 2020 Submit creative nonfiction essays on any topic (200 – 1000 words) and in any style. Top 3 Prizes: $500, $300, $200, plus publication, an interview, and gift card good for one item from […]
Book Pipeline have two writing competitions. Book Pipeline: Unpublished The Unpublished competition is exclusively for unpublished manuscripts across 6 categories of fiction and nonfiction: Young Adult, Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Mystery / Thriller, Literary, Outsider / Experimental, Nonfiction. Select publishers and agents get first look at the top selections for each category, including LGR Literary Agency, […]
The WriteTime Short Story Competitions are open to writers aged over 60. Closing dates are 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December 2020. Submit up to 1,500 words. Entry fee: £3 for one story and £5 for two stories First prize is £50. Prizes for two runners-up £25 each. Winners and highly commended stories […]
The Reflex Fiction Flash Fiction Competition is a quarterly international competition for stories between 180 and 360 words. Prizes: £1,000, £500, £250. Entry Fee: Choose your own! 50 long-listed authors will be offered publication in a print anthology and they will receive a free copy. They will also publish one story on their website every […]
Our Creative Writing Ink competition is open to writers of any nationality or age. Free to enter. Closing Date: Last date of every month. We’re looking for poetry, up to 40 lines. Open theme. You just have to submit your poem to us to info@creativewritingink.co.uk with “Creative Writing Ink Monthly Competition” in the subject line. […]
The Writing Quarter Competition is a free to enter short story competition. The deadline is the last day of each month. Submit short stories of up to 3,000 words. Open theme. Monthly prize is AUD$30. The winning author will also be given the option to publish their story on the website. The competition is open to […]